Posts Tagged ‘OK’

The Fingerless Gloves Fanatics group in Ravelry has always been the most welcoming, informative, and fun group to hang out with. Last year I volunteered to be one of the designers for their Mystery Mitts Knit-Alongs, and finally the stars are aligned, and I’ll be doing just that this month!

So how does this Mystery KAL work? I’ll be posting materials needed and a few details (like gauge and needle sizes) on January 15th. Each week thereafter, I’ll post a portion of the pattern and everyone will knit that portion, not knowing what the final gloves look like until the end. The idea of KALs is that anyone unfamiliar with a knitting technique may get support from the group, and have fun sharing pictures of progress. Oh, and the pattern will be free to members of the group for the duration of the KAL. (Anyone in Ravelry may join – both Ravelry and the Group are free).

I plan to post pictures here each week. Although none of the techniques are especially challenging for moderately experienced knitters, I think newer knitters might like to see pictures of them (such as how to make mirrored increases for the thumb gusset).

This design will offer the knitter two choices for the glove: one uses two colours of sport-weight cotton, the other uses sport-weight sock yarn. There will be options to customize the look of the gloves in the final week. This will be fun!!

(Wot no pictures???) Here’s the pretty sunrise I saw on the morning of Christmas:

I went to Red Earth in June; since I had family visiting, I nearly overlooked posting some pictures here. Red Earth is an enormous Native American event, held in Oklahoma City each June. There is a judged art exhibition with quite a lot of affordable pieces (mostly pottery, leather, beadwork, paintings & prints). I had to stop by to see Harvey Pratt and his lovely wife Gina – maybe one day I’ll be able to seriously consider investing in some of his work (of course I always fall for the big ticket items). This year, I settled for some beads that should wind up in a knitting project (some day…..).

The event kicks off with a parade, and I found myself watching from a spot near to a wall with a huge mural which turned out to be a very fortunate backdrop. Son commented that this is postcard-worthy (although my equipment and experience do not allow me to claim such praise):

My position and the strong sun limited me to mostly views of participants’ backs – but these are very decorative backs!

The dance competitions are a must-see. There’s such a riot of colour and movement, its hard to know where to look. I played with these photos a little, I chose just a couple that capture the movement as I saw it:

I’ve been bizzzzzzy the last few weeks! I looked at my last post here, and can’t believe how much time has passed, and that I was reminiscing about weather Oklahoma-style. We got more weather, Oklahoma style. On the morning of May 10th, our local news channels warned viewers that conditions could be as dangerous as May 3rd ’99, stressing that there would be severe storms and a high likelihood of tornadoes. Everyone should be where they need to be (home or somewhere safe) by 4:00 pm. So we moved our laptops to the storm shelter and my car into the garage. When we saw a tornado headed towards us on TV, we moved ourselves to the shelter…..then all hail broke loose! The biggest hail I’ve ever seen:

The hail actually pierced the decking on our roof so we made son wait a good 10 minutes before we decided it was safe enough to go outside and retrieve this hail stone, by this time, the rain reduced its size a little. It now has pride of place on what was the ice cream shelf in our freezer. Funny, I ran out of tape when I printed labels to help the guys find stuff, so the shelf was labelled “ice” now it looks like I put that up there just for this occasion.

I’m smiling as I recall our stormy evening, it was reassuring that my family knew what to do. It was very nice to have a secure shelter to go to, right in the middle of our home. So we have claims on a couple of autos (the windshields were smashed and there’s craters in the hoods) as well as one for the house. The claims rep that came to inspect our roof and a few items in the yard that were damaged, commented that we were taking everything very well. I explained that I knew for a fact, that so long as no one is seriously hurt, even if the whole house had been blown away, within three years you find yourself wondering how come there isn’t enough room in a 3-car garage to park your car. Life goes on…..

Knitting Patterns

All proceeds from these knitting patterns are donated to March of Dimes. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have questions on any of these designs.

Brain Wave - $4.00

180-210 yards fingering weight yarn; US 3/3.25mm needles for a small adult's beanie, US 5/3.75mm needles for a medium adult hat.

Diminutive Mitts - $4.00

90-120 yards fingering weight yarn; US 4/3.5mm needles. These gloves use a tiny amount of yarn, perfect gift when done in a luxurious yarn. Pictured glove was made using Plymouth Earth Ecco Silk.

Bill's Gloves & Scarf - $4.00

140 - 390 yards worsted weight yarn; US 8/5.0 mm and US 5/3.75 mm needles. Pattern is sized for men and women. Squishy and warm, these gloves fit great and are super for gaming, counting money, or texting in the cold.

Hot August Nights - $4.00

110 - 150 yards of cobweb or laceweight yarn; US 5/3.75 mm needle. With such a large needle and skinny yarn, this glove is a little tricky to start, but this is actually a fairly quick knit. The glove is lighter-than-air, and oh so pretty!